The present disclosure generally relates to the field of dimming light sources. The present disclosure relates more specifically to systems and methods of dimming light sources (causing them to appear to the human eye to be constantly ON, but at a lower intensity than full intensity) by modifying the power signal powering the light source.
Many conventional light emitting diode-based (LED) light sources are not dimmable with conventional dimmers (i.e., a conventional dimmer causes either no dimming effect—the LED stays at the same intensity and then at some point simply turns off—or causes the LED to flash in a manner visible to the human eye). Accordingly, LED light sources (and other light sources) are often specifically modified to enable them to accept a power signal from a conventional dimmer, such as a triac dimmer or rheostat dimmer, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,038,399 (LED) and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,821,699; 6,011,357; 6,448,713; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,111 (fluorescent). This approach requires that the light source driver be changed to accept the dimmed signal, light the light source, and dim the light source all in response to the dimmed signal.